Rust

Rust with the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB shows a predictable scaling pattern across resolutions, but the magnitude of the drops reveals where this pairing struggles. At 1080p, the combo delivers a solid 176.4 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 107.8 FPS on High—a 39% reduction. Moving to 1440p, the Low preset still manages 128.5 FPS, while High falls to 76.2 FPS. The real wall appears at 4K: High settings produce just 45 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 33 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K on High settings shows a 58% performance loss, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU still has headroom at 1080p where the frame rates are high enough to expose any single-thread limitations.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the system is balanced enough to push high frame rates, but the RTX 4060 Ti's 8 GB memory buffer becomes a limiting factor as resolution climbs. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 47.5 FPS (176.4 to 128.9), while the gap between Medium and High is 21.1 FPS (128.9 to 107.8). This nonlinear drop indicates that the GPU's shading power and memory bandwidth are strained more severely as settings increase, not just resolution. At 4K, the difference between Low and Medium is 28.6 FPS (79.8 to 51.2), and High to Ultra is 12 FPS (45 to 33), showing that the card is running out of compute headroom entirely.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: this combo is playable at 1080p and 1440p but struggles at 4K. At 1080p Low, the system hits 176.4 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 128.5 FPS, a 27% decrease. The 4K Low result of 79.8 FPS is still above 60 FPS, but the higher presets tell a different story. High settings at 4K yield 45 FPS, which is 58% slower than 1080p High at 107.8 FPS. Ultra at 4K is 33 FPS, barely above slideshow territory for a survival game where quick reactions matter.

The scaling pattern suggests that the RTX 4060 Ti's 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are the limiting factors at 4K. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Rust's textures, but the bandwidth cannot feed the rendering pipeline fast enough at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are adequate, as evidenced by the high frame rates, but the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck when pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB features a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2535 MHz, with 4352 shading units and 48 ROPs. The memory runs at 2250 MHz with an 18 Gbps effective rate, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth across a 128-bit bus. These specifications explain the performance cliff at 4K: the 128-bit memory interface is narrow for a card in this class, and Rust's large open-world environments require substantial texture streaming and draw call processing.

The GPU's 22.06 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is respectable, but the pixel rate of 121.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 344.8 GTexel/s are constrained by the memory subsystem. At 1080p, the card can push 176.4 FPS on Low because the pixel workload is manageable, but at 4K Ultra, the 33 FPS result shows the card is thrashing. The 8 GB VRAM is also a concern for Rust, which can use more memory with high-quality textures and long play sessions. The data shows that the GPU's role shifts from being the primary driver at 1080p to becoming the sole bottleneck at 4K, where the CPU is likely underutilized.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 706 out of 1717 tested combinations in Rust, placing it in the 41st percentile of all tested hardware pairings. This mid-pack ranking reflects the balance of the Ryzen 5 5500 and RTX 4060 Ti: neither component is a top-tier performer, but they work together without major imbalances. The CPU's average benchmark score is 20875, which is statistically identical to its nearest rivals—the Intel Core i5-12500 scores 20897 (0.1% higher), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE scores 20900 (0.1% higher), and the AMD EPYC 7J13 scores 20845 (0.1% lower). This shows the Ryzen 5 5500 is well-matched with other mid-range processors.

The GPU's benchmark score of 2913 in 3DMark Steel Nomad is exactly equal to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M, a much older mobile chip, which is surprising but highlights the synthetic test's limitations. More relevantly, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB scores 2907 (0.2% lower), meaning the 8 GB version is effectively identical in raw compute. The GTX 860M scores 2959 (1.5% higher). This GPU percentile ranking of 17th out of all GPUs indicates that while the card is far from top-tier, it sits comfortably above the majority of installed hardware. In Rust specifically, the 706th rank out of 1717 combos suggests that many systems with stronger CPUs or GPUs will outperform it, but it also beats a significant portion of the field.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear sweet spot for this combo. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver 128.9 FPS, which is 21 FPS faster than High at 107.8 FPS, while the visual difference between Medium and High in Rust is often minimal. The Low preset at 1080p hits 176.4 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for most users. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 79.7 FPS, which is still playable but not worth the performance cost over High.

At 1440p, Medium settings at 89.9 FPS is the recommended target, as High at 76.2 FPS is noticeably slower and Low at 128.5 FPS is viable for esports-style play. The 4K resolution is not recommended for this combo beyond Low settings, which achieves 79.8 FPS. Medium at 4K drops to 51.2 FPS, and High falls to 45 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider acceptable for a survival game. The data shows that the card's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Medium settings at 1440p, but pushing to High or Ultra at 4K causes the memory bandwidth to become the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 176.4 FPS on Low, 128.9 FPS on Medium, 107.8 FPS on High, and 79.7 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra is a 55% drop, which is steep but consistent with the GPU's mid-range positioning. The 1080p results are all above 60 FPS, making this resolution fully playable at any preset.

At 2560x1440, the results are 128.5 FPS on Low, 89.9 FPS on Medium, 76.2 FPS on High, and 56.4 FPS on Ultra. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops below 60 FPS, indicating that the card cannot maintain a smooth experience at maximum settings at this resolution. The gap between Low and Medium is 38.6 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 13.7 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 3840x2160, the results are 79.8 FPS on Low, 51.2 FPS on Medium, 45 FPS on High, and 33 FPS on Ultra. Only the Low preset stays above 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 51.2 FPS is borderline playable, but High and Ultra are below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The 4K results show a 59% drop from Low to Ultra, and the absolute numbers confirm that this combo is not designed for 4K gaming in Rust. The data indicates that the CPU's 16 MB L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient for most scenarios, but the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot keep up with the demands of 4K rendering in a game with large draw distances and dynamic lighting.